Indeed! Those were the Wolfgang Tillmans shots I was hoping for. I downloaded the pdf in the end and it went very quickly.
Overall a decent piece, but I have some quibbles about the article (I find it irritating how every writer seems to want to paint this picture of John as some whacky character and interrupts his thoughts with sarccy little asides about how apparently incomprehensible he is. Also Gary War is a Bostonian, not a New Yorker). Enjoyably offbeat, nearly lyrical tangents about his 'not-obvious scurrility' (thanks for the very memorable images of John wearing a pink top hat, lipstick and walking an anteater on a leash? A bit of surrealism going on there). Other than that, it was fascinating as usual and demonstrates again the passion John has (voice nearly cracking with enthusiasm for Adorno over the phone) and I think it highlights the new language John has sort of reinvented for pop.

Indeed! Those were the Wolfgang Tillmans shots I was hoping for. I downloaded the pdf in the end and it went very quickly.
Overall a decent piece, but I have some quibbles about the article (I find it irritating how every writer seems to want to paint this picture of John as some whacky character and interrupts his thoughts with sarccy little asides about how apparently incomprehensible he is. Also Gary War is a Bostonian, not a New Yorker). Enjoyably offbeat, nearly lyrical tangents about his 'not-obvious scurrility' (thanks for the very memorable images of John wearing a pink top hat, lipstick and walking an anteater on a leash? A bit of surrealism going on there). Other than that, it was fascinating as usual and demonstrates again the passion John has (voice nearly cracking with enthusiasm for Adorno over the phone) and I think it highlights the new language John has sort of reinvented for pop.

Were there any Tillmans shots included? The photo credits are for Chris Frampton - remember when John checked in back in the summer and mentioned the Musikexpress article and talked about this photographer wanting him to do something "with his hands"? I think that would have been Frampton.

Anyway, I also had some squibbles with the article; flounderblue and I have had some great conversations about all of that "let's make it out that JM is a weirdo that no-one who isn't of supreme intelligence can understand" nonsense. And I break out in a rash when someone's music gets described in terms of "sounds like XYZ". It's lazy journalism and most often not even in any way appropriate. I mean, how does 'Love Letters From Hell' sound like New Order?

But yeah, all in all a decent piece and I had great fun translating it.

Were there any Tillmans shots included? The photo credits are for Chris Frampton - remember when John checked in back in the summer and mentioned the Musikexpress article and talked about this photographer wanting him to do something "with his hands"? I think that would have been Frampton.

That's my mistake, sorry. I blame my feeble, sleep-deprived brain. Has anyone seen the actual Tillmans shots they talk about in the article then?

IrisSala wrote:

Anyway, I also had some squibbles with the article; flounderblue and I have had some great conversations about all of that "let's make it out that JM is a weirdo that no-one who isn't of supreme intelligence can understand" nonsense. And I break out in a rash when someone's music gets described in terms of "sounds like XYZ". It's lazy journalism and most often not even in any way appropriate. I mean, how does 'Love Letters From Hell' sound like New Order?

But yeah, all in all a decent piece and I had great fun translating it.

It's back to the thumbs-up, thumbs-down rhetoric John talked about in the Smetnjak interview. I did appreciate the review of WMBtPCOO as 'the Human League played backwards on a walkman stuck to the skull of a drowning man.' Hadn't heard that one before. Reminds me of the 'Legend' review of Songs. I love it when journalists get a little creative.

It's back to the thumbs-up, thumbs-down rhetoric John talked about in the Smetnjak interview. I did appreciate the review of WMBtPCOO as 'the Human League played backwards on a walkman stuck to the skull of a drowning man.' Hadn't heard that one before. Reminds me of the 'Legend' review of Songs. I love it when journalists get a little creative.

Massive thanks to flounderblue for providing the scanned article, for uploading it on mediafire and for proofreading/comments and awesome discussions

A quick note on the translation: I do this sort of thing for a living and normally I'd translate a text to read 'like an original'. In this case, however, I thought it would be interesting for all of you to get a feel of the tone of the German text, which I've tried to bring across in the English version. So if you read a phrase that sounds odd, or you think, 'John doesn't talk like that' - well, that's kind of intentional.

So - enjoy, discuss, and if you've got any questions, PM me.[/quote]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, and thanks flounderblue for the scan.

The future is so uncertain! He's talking about getting a band again. It'll be interesting to see what happens. If the performance changes I'm glad I got the opportunity to see a solo show.

I've thought about this since working on the article. As a relative newcomer to John Maus I've only seen one live show so far, which I thought it was amazing - as far as I'm concerned he can go on doing that, and no complaints from me. I mean, apart from the fact that he's obviously giving it his everything, the man can sing! Harmonies! What's there not to love? But, if he himself is getting sick of doing that and he wants to try something else, then why not? There are interesting ways of doing electronic music live, and keeping it energetic. There's a Berlin band, friends of mine, who do electronic pop music and they play what they can live and the rest comes from tape - alongside JM, I rate their sets as some of the most engaging I've been to (and the main vocalist tends to hit himself in the face as well, ouch. I don't like that). I went to a DAF gig a couple of years ago where everything came from tape except the vocals, and the drums - another brilliant gig. Or, Depeche Mode before their current rock star incarnation, when they used to play keyboards and electronic drums and whacked the shit out of programmed pads - that would be worth a journey back in time to see live rather than on video. So, I am not opposed to John touring with a band per se but - unless his music changes drastically - the way to go would be to chune into the electronic sensibility (or language or whatever you want to call it) and have proper live keyboard playing. Man, I'd pay good money to see John play the keyboards - for part of the show, not all of it, I would still want to see him jumping around etc. (and hitting himself, less so, again - ouch!).

I guess the one thing that would really turn me off would be if John opted for a traditional rock-style band - but I trust his ongoing exploration of, quoting loosely, a contemporary language and its radical use, enough for him not to start turning into a dad-rocker.

it's so great to see this up and all the thanks again to IrisSala for doing this and letting me read the translation drafts, it gave me a chance to really read this article closely. I'll come back with thoughts at some point...

oh now I've been reading everyone's comments and wow, I'm glad so many people read this. it bugs me a bit, those blurry bits and the cut-off edges so when I get my hands on a bigger scanner, I'm doing it again.

I think you can download the August issue having John's interview can be downloaded from the website; I had seen it before some time. Good you have shared the links for the John Maus article from August's Musikexpress, as it was expected by many people.

Massive thanks to flounderblue for providing the scanned article, for uploading it on mediafire and for proofreading/comments and awesome discussions

A quick note on the translation: I do this sort of thing for a living and normally I'd translate a text to read 'like an original'. In this case, however, I thought it would be interesting for all of you to get a feel of the tone of the German text, which I've tried to bring across in the English version. So if you read a phrase that sounds odd, or you think, 'John doesn't talk like that' - well, that's kind of intentional.